Marathon Man

Marathon Man. 1976 Paramount Pictures.
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, William Devane, Roy Scheider, Marthe Keller
Director: John Schlesinger
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"Is it safe?" Number 70 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes list.

Dustin Hoffman is Thomas "Babe" Levy, a running enthusiast who is also working towards his Ph.D. in history researching the same field as his dad, who killed himself after he was investigated during the Joseph McCarthy era. His brother Henry (Scheider), or "Doc" if you prefer, poses as an oil company executive, but unknown to Babe, he is a government agent working for one Peter Janeway (Devane). Doc is in New York under the guise of visiting his brother, but in fact, he is tracking a Nazi war criminal named Dr. Christian Szell (Olivier), whose brother possesses a key to a safety deposit box containing an extremely valuable collection of diamonds (we learn later on that the diamonds were taken from Jewish victims that Szell personally executed at Auschwitz during World War II). Szell's brother dies following a road rage incident with a short-tempered Jewish American motorist. Meanwhile, Babe starts dating a fellow student named Elsa Opel (Keller), who says she's from Switzerland. One day, they're mugged in the park by two men in suits. Later, Doc takes them both to lunch, where he tricks Elsa into admitting she was lying about her past, because Doc suspects she has some kind of tie to Szell.

Doc is later stabbed by Szell, and he manages to make it back to Babe's apartment where he dies before telling him anything. The police interrogate Babe for hours, until Janeway and his men arrive. Janeway informs Babe of Doc's past as a government agent, and is convinced that Doc made his way back to Babe's apartment to share vital information. Later, Babe is abducted by the same two men who attacked him and Elsa in the park, who bring him to Szell, and Babe is tortured by the Nazi who repeatedly asks "Is it safe?" Babe denies any knowledge of what's happening, and is rescued by Janeway. After informing him of Szell's intentions for the cache of diamonds, and after Babe again stresses that Doc did not share any information with him before dying, Janeway reveals he is in cahoots with Szell. Szell had agreed to inform on his fellow Nazi war criminals in return for immunity. Babe is sent back to Szell, who is surprisingly gentle in his explanation why he's being held captive: he suspected Doc would attempt to seize the diamonds, or inform the authorities, and Szell wants to know if it's "safe" to withdraw the diamonds. Babe again says he knows nothing, and following more torture (dental torture!!), Babe escapes, outrunning Janeway and Szell's henchmen.

After this, Babe formulates a plan for revenge, and it could prove fatal for more than one person involved.

Laurence Olivier was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as Dr. Szell, and he won a Golden Globe in the same category. Olivier was also suffering from cancer at the time of filming, and Paramount initially didn't want to use him during production, but producer Robert Evans called on his friends Merle Oberon and David Niven to meet with the House of Lords in England to convince them to urge Lloyds of London to insure Olivier. In the end, Olivier's cancer went into remission, and he lived for another thirteen years.

Highly recommended thriller, thanks to the performances of Hoffman and Olivier, although some might find the dental torture scenes a little too hard to watch. Be forewarned!